History Film / Skyfall

*** Which may be either a MythologyGag or just an unintentional mistake, since Bond had a personalised signature gun in ''Film/LicenceToKill'', about 7 years ''before'' he got the exploding pen, making the ''pen'' more sophisticated. And in both movies the gun doesn't actually serve any purpose other than being dropped so that some hapless guy in the Komodo dragon pit can fail to shoot him with it.

* BanisterSlide: Bond and Silva slide down the separator between escalators in the London Underground during the chase sequence. In reality, there are actually spacers every few feet to prevent people doing exactly this (one of which can be seen detached on the floor at the end).

* CapturedOnPurpose: Silva is taken captive by Bond and incarcerated in a glass cell. But as MI6 soon discover, this is just so that he can hack into their computers, automatically open his cell, waltz through the London underground and into the middle of a court room to shoot M.

* {{Foil}}: Silva has elements that make him similar to Bond, Q and even M. He was an MI6 agent who uses multiple gadgets like Bond. He's an expert hacker like Q. He makes very dark decisions and leads his organization like M.

* GambitRoulette: Silva's escape/assassination plan hinges on, among other things, his being captured and held at MI6 on the day of M's hearing, Q springing his computer trap at exactly the right time, perfect choreography and timing between numerous teams of henchmen ''in the London Underground during rush hour'' and Bond chasing him into one particular room at exactly the time that a train is passing overhead (and not deciding to just shoot him).

* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: Attempt to recover an encrypted hard drive containing the identities of every active undercover NATO agent goes wrong → MI6 comes under intense government scrutiny for the mishap → An attempt a by rogue agent turned cyber-criminal to destroy MI6 and get his revenge against M for selling him out to the Chinese.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Q, no longer the cantankerous old man that Creator/DesmondLlewellyn portrayed or Creator/JohnCleese for ''Die Another Day'' or ''[[VideoGame/EverythingorNothing Everything or Nothing]]'' but the young and nerdy Creator/BenWhishaw, in the "attractive HollywoodNerd" sense.

* HollywoodNerd: The extremely svelte and good looking Creator/BenWhishaw as the new GadgeteerGenius Q.

* PrecisionFStrike: The first -- and, to date, only -- use of the F-word in a Bond film.

* PrecisionFStrike: From M. This is the first time the F-word has ever been uttered in a Bond film.

''Moved heaven and earth; that which we are, we are;''\\

** Bond fails at every objective he has during the movie: he loses the [=MI6=] hard drive; allows an assassin to kill a politician; fails to get information from said assassin; fails to protect the mole; [[spoiler:falls into Silva's trap; fails to stop Silva escaping; fails to stop several deaths in Parliament; loses Skyfall Manor; kills Silva instead of letting him rot in prison; and finally fails to protect M.]] The only positive thing that can be said is that he survives. In a sense, this is exactly the way Creator/IanFleming first conceived of Bond.

*** The scenes were shot on the closed Charing Cross platforms and stub branch of the Jubilee line, which along with Aldwych is one of two common filming locations for productions that allow them to shoot without interrupting service.[[note]]The Jubilee line platforms at Charing Cross were closed in November 1999 when it was bypassed in favour of a new modern extension that took the line through Waterloo, Canary Wharf, North Greenwich and ultimately, a new eastern terminus of Stratford[[/note]]

Hold you breath and count to ten...]]'']]

[[caption-width-right:300:''[[Music/{{Adele}} This is the end...]]'']]

* MuderousThighs: Bond kills one of Silva's henchmen by choking him with his thighs.

* ArtisticLicenceMilitary: [[spoiler:Q's obituary for Bond sees his name written as "Commander James Bond CMG R.N.". Real obituaries for Navy officers - even if they leave before dying - have their name either completely abbreviated (ie "Cdr James Bond CMG RN") or completely written out (ie "Commander James Bond CMG Royal Navy"), not a mixture of the two. "CMG", being such a long title, is allowed to be abbreviated in either situation.]]

** Interestingly, Hashima Island, the island Silva's lair is located on, is a real life ghost town in Japan (not China). It was a coal mining facility from 1887 to 1974, before it was abandoned overnight. The island is notable for its character due to its sea wall and its untouched abandoned and derelict concrete buildings.

** Come on, Q. You should know not to [[spoiler:hook Silva's computer into [=MI6=]'s network]].
** M, we understand you don't want to show weakness to anyone, but when a team of commando terrorists have broken their leader, who has a vendetta against you, out of jail, and are going to come after you in a Parliament hearing, you should have known better than continue the hearing. You're likely to get shot. Later in the film, she even says "I fucked this up, didn't I?"
** Bond [[spoiler:plants a file in the [=MI6=] system to make Silva think that M is at Skyfall manor so he can ambush him. Then he actually takes M to Skyfall manor with only himself and an old gamekeeper for protection. Silva brings 7 or 8 guys (which was the best case scenario for Bond) and M winds up dead.]]

* BadassBeard: Bond sports one that's just out of PermaStubble through part of the film.

* ArtisticLicenceChemistry: Hydrogen cyanide does not dissolve tooth and bone as is depicted. It is a colorless, odorless gas that causes death by cutting off cell respiration. However, it's possible that the cyanide capsule included acid in order to release the poison, and that this particular capsule simply contained too much acid and too little cyanide. This would still make Silva wrong, as he specifically blames the cyanide, but perhaps he is simply not well-versed on the subject, or was just ignoring the technicalities.

* AgentPeacock: Raoul Silva's mannerisms are really flamboyant, and he's also generally one step ahead of Bond and MI6.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: The film ends with Bond being given a new mission by M.
-->'''M''': So, 007, lots to be done. Are you ready to get back to work?\\

* ForEverythingThereIsAFirstTime: After ''49 years'' of successfully dodging bullets, 007 finally manages to get himself shot---''twice!''---in the opening chase sequence. It has a profound effect on him throughout the better part of the first half of the movie.

** Played straight in the prologue: Patrice with his fully-automatic Glock 18 is able to lay down near-continuous fire from the roof of the train and is only seen reloading once. Initially handwaved by his using a drum magazine, though he carries on doing so even after he gets rid of it and switches to regular stick magazines. He's also using "hard to get and extremely expensive" depleted uranium shells -- apparently he had a bottomless wallet, as well, since that uranium must cost quite a fortune.

''Skyfall'', the twenty-third film in the Creator/EonProductions ''Film/JamesBond'' franchise, also marks the 50th anniversary of the film series, and is the third film in the series to star Creator/DanielCraig. After languishing for years in DevelopmentHell following the financial problems of distributor MGM, the Creator/SamMendes-directed film finally saw release in fall 2012. Music/{{Adele}} performed the TitleThemeTune.

%% The site owner himself has discussed TheOneWith and said they should stay. Please leave them alone.
[[TheOneWith The one where]] James Bond jokes that he [[EveryoneIsBi swings both ways]].
%% The site owner himself has discussed TheOneWith and said they should stay. Please leave them alone.

* ConvenientlyTimeAttackFromBehind: Bond kills Silva with a throwing knife to the back while the latter is about to kill M and himself.

* NoOneGetsLeftBehing: {{Averted}} in the opening when Bond has to leave a fellow agent to bleed to death, in favour of pursuing the man who shot him and stole a microchip containing the identities of NATO undercover agents. Silva turns out to be another SIS agent who was abandoned after he went rogue.

* NonSpecficallyForeign: Raoul Silva is played by a Spanish actor who applies English "received pronunciation" vowels over his own accent, using a Portuguese name. His real name, Thiago Rodriguez, doesn't narrow the field any more.

* ArtisticLicencePhysics: The "depleted uranium" shells used by Patrice sure sound cool -- especially since an actual US Military aircraft, the A-10 Thunderbolt II, is built around a [[GatlingGood massive gun]] that fires such rounds -- but if scaled down to the size of the Glock 18 he's actually seen using, they wouldn't accomplish much.

Preceded by ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'' and followed by ''Film/{{Spectre}}'', a {{sequel}} that picks up where this film left off.